Jill Dando's brother has shared a theory about his sister's unsolved murder ahead of the debut of a Netflix documentary about the case.
More than 24 years have passed since Dando, a well-known BBC journalist, was murdered in an execution style on her doorstep in a quiet residential street in Fulham.
Who Killed Jane Dando?, a three-part Netflix documentary, will look at Dando's extraordinary work as a popular television presenter, as well as presenting theories surrounding her death in April 1999.
The television personality was 37-years-old when she was killed by a single bullet on her doorstep. As a newscaster and host of the BBC’s Crimewatch and other programs, Dando was a well-known face on telly.
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Dando’s killing is one of the biggest homicide investigations in British history.
After watching the Netflix documentary, her brother Nigel Dando shared his thoughts with Sky News on two popular theories about Dando’s death, before giving his own.
One of the theories about a possible motive behind her killing was that her presenting role on Crimewatch put her in a vulnerable position because the criminals featured on the show may have held a grudge against her.
Another theory was that a Serbian assassin murdered Dando in revenge over NATO bombing after Dando heralded an appeal for aid for Kosovar Albanian refugees.
However, Mr Dando says neither theory stands up but says they are both ‘interesting lines of inquiry’ that ‘never went anywhere’.
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On the Crimewatch theory he says ‘there was no evidence, it was just someone jumping on the bandwagon’.
And regarding the Serbian mafia theory, the former journalist says there was ‘no real evidence of a Serbian hitman’.
Mr Dando he believes his sister was just ‘at the wrong place at the wrong time’.
In the conversation with Sky News, he said: “My theory before this happened and that's been reinforced since by watching this documentary, is that Jill was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that somebody walking down the street, holding a gun for whatever reason, spotted her, either knowing her or not knowing who she was, and shot her dead."
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He added that some of the ‘theories would make great stories in fiction, but… There's no line that really holds a huge amount of water apart from you know, a random killing, which I think it was’.
A local man named Barry George, who had previous convictions and a history of stalking women, was arrested for Dando’s murder almost a year after her death.
He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment but after spending seven years behind bars, he was later acquitted due to unreliable forensic evidence.
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On George’s original conviction, Mr Dando says: "At the time I thought that the police had got the right person, and a jury agreed with that sentiment because he was obviously found guilty and jailed for life. But the legal system moves on."
However, Mr Dando is concerned about George choosing not to give evidence at his trial or retrial.
"I would just liked to have seen him tell a jury exactly what he was doing on that day, because he's never actually explained where he was,” he said.
“It's all a bit jumbled up. It would have been interesting to have heard him explain where he was, and for him to have been cross-examined about his movements on that day."
Featured Image Credit: Colin Davey/Getty Images / ITVTopics: Netflix, Crime, UK News, TV and Film